Industry 4.0 and the Global Digitalised Production. Structural Changes in Manufacturing

EasyChair Preprint 1959

Abstract

The globalization process and the new digitalized production have rapidly changed the structural organizational models of the major economies. To avoid the commoditization trap, globalization and price-advantage erosion, the manufacturing industries are moving from mass to customized production. They have servitized business operations, taking advantages of the new emerging and digitized technologies within the scenario of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). This paper recalls the most significant features of the scientific debate on this new industrial paradigm, and investigates the impact on the manufacturing sector, focusing on SMEs. It evaluates the effects on labour division, organizational models of production (agents-machines-organization), the “new” power structure, and the whole economy. It concentrates on the effects of technology on the labour market and organizational models with respect to SMEs and networks, and concludes that I4.0 could be an effective driving force for networking SMEs, despite a reduction of employees in manufacturing is likely to continue.

Keyphrases: Globalization, Industry 4.0, Labour division, Servitization

@booklet{EasyChair:1959,
  author    = {Giovanna Morelli and Cesare Pozzi and Antonia Rosa Gurrieri},
  title     = {Industry 4.0 and the Global Digitalised Production. Structural Changes in Manufacturing},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 1959},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2019}}